SARASOTA – Nearly 40 million people have died from HIV/AIDS since the first diagnosis in 1981.
With advancements in Science, the autoimmune disease is no longer a death sentence.
‘A lot of folks don’t know that PrEP exists and can be a tool,” said PrEP Program Coordinator at CAN Community Health, Jasmine Akins.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis medication or PrEP, is a once a day pill that someone can take as an additional measure to help prevent HIV infection.
“It only prevents against HIV, so no other STI’s or pregnancy but with HIV that’s a big deal, if taken correctly and consistently it is 99 percent effective, which is amazing,” said Akins.
So what does PrEP do to your body?
“Once its inside of the body, PrEP creates a barrier blanket around your CD4 cell, and your CD4 cell is your immune system essentially, so what it does is it creates the barrier and if someone comes in contact with HIV, or if they’re exposed, it is not able to penetrate that barrier wall around those cells,” said Akins.
PrEP was approved by the FDA in 2012. CAN Community Health offers several programs to assist with getting PrEP.
“Some folks pay very little to nothing for their PrEP medication because overall we want to make sure that folks are healthy and if PrEP is a decision they want to make for themselves there are very few to no road blocks,” said Akins.
While prevention is power, knowing your status is the first step.
“If you’re someone who doesn’t know your status, I encourage you to come get tested at CAN, services are always and will forever be free so you never have to worry about anything coming out of pocket just for the test, but that’s really the starting point, knowing your status,” said Akins.
For more information on testing locations, you can visit CAN Community Health’s website here.